Viz Media
Seiji Horibuchi arrived in California from Tokushima Prefecture, Japan, in 1975. He spent two years living in the suburbs before moving to San Francisco to start a business exporting American cultural items to Japan. A visit to Japan in 1985 changed his perspective on comics when he encountered Katsuhiro Otomo's single-volume title Domu: A Child's Dream. This experience sparked an idea to publish Japanese manga in the United States that had not existed before.
Horibuchi met Masahiro Ohga, then managing director of Shogakukan, in 1985 and shared his vision with him. Shogakukan provided Horibuchi with $200,000 in startup capital which he used in 1986 to found Viz Communications. The company released its first titles in 1987 including Legend of Kamui but sales were mediocre due to the specialist comic market being averse to venturing into new territory.
To counteract this problem, Viz expanded into the general publishing business and began publishing various art related books in 1992. Into these titles, Horibuchi began publishing manga calling them graphic novels so they would be carried by mainstream bookstores. The plan worked and after several years leading booksellers began to have dedicated shelves for manga titles. Sales also picked up when Viz Communications acquired the license for the comedy series Ranma ½ which became an instant hit.
In 2005, Viz Communications merged with ShoPro Entertainment, an American subsidiary of Shogakukan, and was renamed to Viz Media. Horibuchi became the new company's chairman during that same year. The resulting entity is owned by Japanese publishing conglomerates Shueisha and Shogakukan as well as Japanese production company Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions (ShoPro).
When Shueisha became a joint owner of Viz in 2002, both Shogakukan and Shueisha began to release manga exclusively through Viz. Shueisha's deal with Viz may have been prompted by competition with Raijin Comics, a rival manga publisher created in 2002 by editors and artists who had split off from Shueisha taking their properties with them.
Some exceptions to this exclusivity exist however. Shueisha permitted DC Comics's subsidiary CMX Manga to license Tenjho Tenge although it was later re-licensed and re-released by Viz Media. Shueisha also permitted Dark Horse Comics to license Gantz, Lady Snowblood, Shadow Lady, The Monkey King, and recently Yasuhiro Nightow's Blood Blockade Battlefront and CLAMP's Gate 7.
By 2017, Viz Media was the largest publisher of graphic novels in the United States in the bookstore market with a 23% share of the market. This dominance came after years of strategic expansion into anime distribution and publishing popular titles like Dragon Ball, One Piece, Detective Conan, Bleach, Inuyasha, and Naruto which resulted in high success for the company as well as a large amount of North American readers.
Viz Media received an award for Manga Trade Paperback of the Year for its release of the fourteenth volume of the Naruto series. The company continued to see success when it expanded into the anime distribution market beginning to publish Shonen Jump, an English adaptation of the popular Japanese magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump published by Shueisha.
In 2020, Viz Media saw a 70% growth in the U.S. market in line with a 43% increase in overall manga sales in the United States the same year. This growth reflected broader trends in the industry while establishing Viz as a central force in bringing Japanese comics to American audiences through both print and digital channels.
On the 9th of May 2023, Viz Media launched a digital manga service called "Viz Manga" featuring licenses from Shogakukan and Shueisha that are not published on the digital "Shonen Jump" service. The platform offers simultaneous English releases of ongoing manga series allowing readers to access new chapters immediately after their publication in Japan.
On the 3rd of July 2019, Viz Media partnered with Crunchyroll to distribute select Crunchyroll licensed titles on home video and electronic sell-through in the United States and Canada. More content from Viz Media started to launch in their catalog such as Hunter × Hunter, Sailor Moon R: The Movie, and two Berserk films.
On the 9th of September 2020, Funimation announced that they had reached a distribution partnership with Viz Media with Viz Media titles being made available to stream on Funimation's website. The deal was made after select Viz titles were previously made available on Funimation creating a comprehensive streaming ecosystem for anime fans across North America.
Animerica is a quarterly anime and manga digest that initially started as a monthly magazine featuring reviews of anime and manga titles as well as related works. After a preview issue was released in November 1992, the magazine's first issue was released in February 1993 with a March 1993 cover date. In 2004 it had a circulation of 45,000 readers but low sales and high competition from Newtype USA resulted in the essential cancellation of the original magazine and its reformatting as a free digest.
Shonen Jump is a shōnen manga anthology that debuted in November 2002 with a January 2003 cover date. Based on the popular Japanese anthology Weekly Shōnen Jump published by Shueisha, Shonen Jump is retooled for English readers and the American audience and is published monthly instead of weekly. It features serialized chapters from seven manga series and articles on Japanese language and culture as well as manga, anime, video games, and figurines.
The first issue required three printings to meet demand with over 300,000 copies sold. It was awarded the ICv2 "Comic Product of the Year" award in December 2002 and has continued to enjoy high sales with a monthly circulation of 215,000 in 2008. Shojo Beat launched in June 2005 as a sister magazine targeting women ages 16, 18 with an initial circulation of 20,000 copies.
Viz Productions coordinates the licenses of Japanese material including manga books and film to American film companies based in Los Angeles. Their goal is to involve the Japanese creators in the production and facilitate communication between all parties in the US and Japan. Viz Productions' first film is the live action adaptation of All You Need Is Kill titled Edge of Tomorrow starring Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt.
Their second production was the American live-action adaptation to the supernatural thriller manga series Death Note which was directed by Adam Wingard and starred Nat Wolff as the film's lead. In November 2005, New People was officially formed as a sister company for releasing live-action Japanese films as theatrical releases in selected markets called Viz Pictures according to Horibuchi.
In August 2009, Viz Pictures opened a three-story entertainment complex in San Francisco called New People. The center piece of the complex is a 143-seat movie theater that screens anime and Japanese live-action films. The center also has a cafe, a store selling anime and manga related items, and clothing stores offering Japanese clothing items before the division renamed itself to New People and no longer shares office space or employees with Viz Media.
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Common questions
Who founded Viz Media and when was it established?
Seiji Horibuchi founded the company as Viz Communications in 1986 using $200,000 in startup capital from Shogakukan. The entity later merged with ShoPro Entertainment in 2005 to become Viz Media.
What is the ownership structure of Viz Media today?
Viz Media is owned by Japanese publishing conglomerates Shueisha and Shogakukan along with the production company Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions. This joint ownership began taking shape when Shueisha became a partner in 2002.
When did Viz Media launch its digital manga service called Viz Manga?
On the 9th of May 2023, Viz Media launched a digital manga service named Viz Manga featuring licenses from Shogakukan and Shueisha. The platform offers simultaneous English releases allowing readers to access new chapters immediately after their publication in Japan.
How large is the market share of Viz Media in the United States bookstore market?
By 2017, Viz Media held a 23% share of the U.S. bookstore market making it the largest publisher of graphic novels in that sector. The company achieved this dominance through strategic expansion into anime distribution and popular titles like Dragon Ball and One Piece.
Which magazines did Viz Media publish starting in the early 2000s?
Shonen Jump debuted as a monthly anthology in November 2002 while Shojo Beat launched in June 2005 targeting women ages 16 to 18. Animerica also started as a quarterly digest with its first issue released in February 1993 before being reformed as a free publication.